Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong will no doubt have rolled his eyes at links to Manchester United over the past week, while other reports suggest that the club are less than happy with him. That is not the case for manager Hansi Flick though.
De Jong is still recovering from his ankle injury and won’t be back until September according to the latest reports. The Dutchman’s agents have not responded to Sporting Director Deco’s attempts to sign him to a new deal though, and the club suspect he will look to leave on a free.
So any attempts to force him out may be in vain. As per Sport, he does not want to leave the club, but importantly, Flick has also asked Barcelona not to sell him. He also told the Blaugrana that he had sufficient resources in central midfield, with many suspecting that youngsters Marc Bernal and Marc Casado were Flick’s gambles for the position.
Nevertheless, the Catalan daily detail that Flick sees de Jong being the eventual Sergio Busquets replacement. He has told the 27-year-old that he will be a guaranteed starter under him, and his intention is for de Jong to be the anchor at the base of midfield for the new Barcelona.
It’s certainly a risky strategy for Flick to gamble on de Jong performing the function that he desires. While de Jong was only tested there in fleeting instances last season, any previous attempts to use him as Barcelona’s deepest midfielder have ended poorly. Flick does like to play two deeper midfielders, which was also where de Jong performed best both at Ajax and under Xavi Hernandez at Barcelona. That was alongside Busquets though, who handled the role of dropping between the defenders, and organising the game in front of him.